


We're So Happy, Yes, We're So Happy

by parsnips (trifles)



Series: Tales of Love, Loss, and Insurance [23]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Conversations, Games, Gen, Hallucinations, Hiding Medical Issues, Insurance, Mental Health Issues, Music, Musical References, Post-Movie(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Song Lyrics, Team Bonding, Veterans, wombats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 01:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3832360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trifles/pseuds/parsnips
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Afterwards, Bruce goes back to his own floor. He asks JARVIS to scan the air ducts for Barnes. And then he calls up the last several months' worth of common floor footage, and starts reviewing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're So Happy, Yes, We're So Happy

**Author's Note:**

> This is the world of [insurance-Bucky](http://triflesandparsnips.tumblr.com/tagged/fic:insurance!bucky). These are his stories.
> 
> (Hey, Buck. You've been holed up in there for a while. Coming out today?)
> 
> Sure, Steve. Soon.

When the elevator opens up onto the common floor, Bruce steps out into the middle of several ongoing conversations and strange, interrupted bursts of music. 

As Bruce heads into the kitchen to get a cup of tea, he sees Natasha and Clint are at the table, flipping coins into a coffee cup using the tips of their knives –- the game seems to be in trying to account for the force of the tiny bolts of lightning thrown by Thor, also at the table, that are shifting the coins off their course. There’s a lot of swearing and attempts at trick shots that Thor is loudly laughing off.

Tea made, Bruce heads back into the living room. Bucky is sitting on the coffee table, Sam opposite him on the couch. They’re talking, in that quiet way that Bucky has when he’s in a large group and not actively trying to defend anyone from HYDRA, about the problem of veterans who think they haven’t met minimum duty requirements for veteran benefits and instead are spending their time trying to apply for Medicaid –- without adequate resources to help them sort through the paperwork, and possibly while suffering from severe physical disabilities or PTSD. Technically Sam, as a VA counselor, is one of the “services” available solely for people who already have their benefits sorted out, but apparently he’s been ignoring that particular technicality for a while. There’s just more Sam wishes he could do, and Bucky, with a surprising level of empathy, redirects Sam from his self-blame and asks what kind of PTSD situations Sam has helped with in the past.

Also on the couch, sitting beside Sam, is Steve. Steve is angled slightly away, toward the arm chair where Tony is leaning forward, legs spread and protein shake drooping between his knees. The two of them, it seems, are having a contained but energetic disagreement about music. Tony is firmly on the side of thrash metal, and is having JARVIS play clips from, apparently, bands like Suicidal Tendencies and Hogan’s Heroes to demonstrate the progression of the genre to a largely unimpressed Steve.

Bruce takes a sip of his tea, notices that Bucky and Steve, despite being on different pieces of furniture and paying attention to completely different conversations, are still managing to sit close enough that their right knees are pressed together. Bruce smiles a little, and starts seriously trying to decide which group he’s going to join.

There’s the smell of ozone, and the sound of a small thunk as a coin hits the floor. “Shit,” Clint says. “Missed.” Natasha laughs.

Tony says, “This is  _art,_  Rogers, listen, okay, JARVIS–-”

_No, I don’t want to, I’m okay, I’ll figure it out myself and_

Sam says, “There’s a lot of good you can do with just some basic stuff. Giving people the space to talk about it, that’s a big one.”

The snap of electricity.  _Zsst._  “Damn it,” says Natasha. This time Thor laughs.

Steve raises his eyebrow. “If I wanted to listen to something angry, I’d track down Fury and tell him what I was doing with myself these days.”

Sam says, “Then there’s calming techniques. Diaphragmatic breathing, meditation.”

 _Zsst._  This time the faint scritch of a knife edge caught on the coin before the inevitable thunk. It’s a little unnerving. Clint swears.

Tony says, “I know I’ve joked about the Glen Miller Orchestra, but-–”

Steve says, “First of all, you’ve never listened to any music from my time, so please understand that I wouldn’t call the majority of it cheerful either. But look, I, uh, just found this band called The Wombats, and–-”

“Oh for fucks’  _sake,”_  says Tony.

 _Zsst._  Thunk.

“JARVIS,” says Tony, “please save me.”

_and they just keep bugging me and they just keep bugging me and it builds up inside and it builds_

Sam says, “Helping them ground themselves in the here and now, you know? That’s hard shit, never going to stop being hard.”

Steve says, “JARVIS, cut Tony’s music and play that Wombats song I found, the dance one.”

_Let’s dance to Joy Division, and raise our glass to the ceiling_

“Oh god, it burns,” says Tony.

Thor laughs, triumphant. “Admit that you won’t best me,” he says, “and we can stop this farce now.”

Clint says, “I think you’re underestimating how far I’m willing to go.”

Natasha says, “And overestimating how hard I was trying.”

_‘Cause this could all go so wrong, but we’re so happy, yeah we’re so happy_

“I was thinking of looking up Joy Division next,” Steve says. “Since it’s in the song.”

There’s a strange sensation building in the back of Bruce’s head. Bruce has a lot of sensations in the back of his head, all of which he knows enough to listen to. He doesn’t know what this one in particular is telling him, or why. Just that something’s off.

He does, however, remember listening to Joy Division’s 1979  _Unknown Pleasures_  album after his mother–- died.

Listened to it over and over and over.

Bruce’s hand tightens on his cup.

Sam says, “And some people are really lucky and get service animals. Like, you know, cats or dogs or something. They’re not just for people with handicaps. The touch, the uncomplicated emotional support –- it’s good for people.”

“It’s your funeral,” Tony says. “JARVIS, can we play some–-”

“That’s a bad idea, Tony,” Bruce says. His voice saws in his throat. Tony jerks. Bruce isn’t sure Tony knew he was there.

_Zsst._

_Clink._

Natasha says smugly, “You should listen to me when I tell you things.”

Bucky lifts his hand and pokes his fingers into Steve’s knee. Steve jumps, and then grins at Bucky. Bucky says, “I have a dog.”

Sam laughs, and says, “Well, if that’s what you want to call him, man.”

Bruce, his skin tight and lyrics running through his head, is looking at Bucky. Which is why he sees Bucky look at something by the door, his eyes tracking a thing that isn’t there and yet which still slowly leaves the room.

And then JARVIS says, “Perhaps Dr. Banner has a suggestion, sir.”


End file.
